Nasa Wavelength

Audience

Topic

Resource Type

Instructional Strategies

SMD Forum

Carbon Dioxide Increases during the last 2,000 years

In this problem set, learners will use a graph of carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere of the last 2000 years to answer questions related to increases over time and why scientists link this increase with human activity. Answer key is provided.

Can you hear Me Now? Communicating with Spacecraft

Learners will investigate various ways to improve mission design to maximize the scientific return. In the first activity, students examine how the use of flowcharts can help make computer programs error-free and efficient, in this way making the spacecraft more reliable.

Audience:
High school

Topic:
Engineering and technology, The nature of technology, The design process

Space Weather Software

This software package displays movies and images of the aurora and the Sun in various wavelengths from the ground and from NASA spacecraft; a tutorial about what space weather is and how the aurora is formed; and more.

Electromagnets

This is an activity about the properties of electromagnets, which is a crucial underpinning for understanding how magnetic fields are generated in nature, in the surface of the Sun, and in the interior of Earth.

Comet on a Stick

In this activity, learners replicate the scientific processes of observing, forming an explanation, revising and communicating about a model of a comet. Learners construct a model of features of a comet using an assortment of common craft supplies.

Distance to the Moon

Learners will use simple sports balls as scale models of Earth and the Moon. Given the astronomical distance between Earth and the Moon, students will determine the scale of the model system and the distance that must separate the two models.

Titan and other Moons of Saturn

This is a lesson about Saturn's largest moon, Titan. Learners will examine and sort through images of Saturn's varied moons to see characteristics they share and those which set them apart. Students will write a paragraph about Saturn’s moons and explain how they sorted them.

Classifying Galaxies Using Hubble's Fork Diagram

In this activity, students explore the idea of classifying objects. They start by giving examples of objects that can be classified in everyday life and in science. They then characterize and classify a set of galaxies using their own scheme, and using Hubble's classification scheme.

How Does Light Travel?

This is an activity about how light travels. Learners will perform two experiments. The first explores blocking light to create shadows. The second asks learners to use mirrors to figure out that light travels in a straight line. This is Activity 4 of the Sun As a Star afterschool curriculum.